From the Desk of Harold Poole

Why are these Confederate statues so important, and whose defending them?

Recently during a television interview, Frank Powell, Editor of the Confederate Veteran magazine of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, made the case that the statues where not just monuments, but memorials to the tens of the thousands of Confederate soldiers who were buried in unknown graves, or not buried at all. The War for Southern Independence, a name not used too often by those who talk about the war without knowing its true cause, was America’s most bloody war.

While many on the Alt. Left and in the main stream media, and in the college classroom claim the war was either solely or mostly about slavery, they fail to say that slave ownership in the South was about 5%. They don’t tell you that 95% of Southerners did NOT own slaves. Nor do they talk about where the slaves came from? Who brought them here? Who earned huge profits by their transport to America, and sale? And the slaves who were originally sold in the North, where did they go? Were they freed? Or were they re-sold South at a profit for Yankees?

And if slavery was seen as terrible by the North, can someone tell me why they took cotton grown in the South for the textile mills and shops in Massachusetts?

And, has any serious historian or news outlet looked at the laws in the North concerning immigration of blacks from the South to the North before, during or after the war? Where did the underground railroad actually go? For example, what was the distribution of blacks nationally by 1900? And if we want to talk about racism, where were the two largest KKK rallies in America? Find the answers to those questions and you will see the disgrace of racism in America is an evenly shared sin, not one unique to the South.

But the monuments to Southern soldiers are not testaments to racism. And while they are memorials to the men of the South who rose up to defend their homes and families from an invader, that is not their only purpose or value.

The history of this land is rich, and full. It is a land unique in the modern world. Its discovery, exploration, settlement, colonization, awakening, revolution and formation are testimony to a Living God, the Bible, and Christianity. The term Providence (the earthly manifestation of God’s Will) was a commonly used phrase from the Pilgrims to the Confederacy. America rose up under a biblical worldview, not the secular humanist worldview we live under today. God had a place, a real place. And people who first came to this nation were brought here, in a large way, in search of living their faith, their belief in Christ. America first became a melting pot of Christian denominations. In Europe Catholics fought Anglicans, Presbyterians fought Catholics in Scotland. And on the mainland of Europe, Christianity fought itself…but here in America, that division melted. Ia it coincidental that The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, a 1000 page opus on the Christian foundation of this nation, was published in 1864?

The statues of Lee and Jackson and so many others are evidence of great historic themes within this nation; the idea of the primacy of the state over the federal government, the devotion of man to his family, and to his local community; the fact that this was a nation of states, brought together first under the Articles of Confederation, and only subsequently under the present-day Constitution, when the first effort failed. These are all about consent of the governed, a foundational article of American governance that is seldom heard this day.

Who is defending them? Well, for the first time in a long time, a United States President! President Trump is not the first President to defend the South, but he is the only one in fifty years. America was a different place on the hundredth Anniversary of the great war, when most Southerners could still remember speaking to a Confederate veteran who served the South. And perhaps the 50 to 80 million Americans who are descendants of Confederate soldiers and sailors! We are not standing with the KKK and white supremacists. We are standing with our ancestors, we are standing with our history, and with the values which led non-slave holders to rally to Dixie.

Does America have troubles? Yes. But has she been the greatest nation in the history of man? Yes. In terms of freedom, in terms of opportunity for success extended to all, in terms of moving forward through the sins of mankind towards a more Christian reality on earth, these are the measures I believe which define the greatness of this nation, of the idea of America.

The fight over the Confederate memorials is an important fight because it illustrates that there is a clear and present danger to the United States of America from within. It demonstrates that there are people working to destroy America, to tear us down. It demonstrates that Satan is at work here in a land that was Christian in character at birth and until Appomattox. And still is, when the people are riled up by a continuous barrage of anti-Americanism.

The Culture War in America has been an underestimated threat to both the Constitution and the nation itself. The attack on America is not just centered on Confederate memorials but across a wide spectrum that starts with attacks on Thomas Jefferson and ends with the Black Caucus filing a bill for reparations for black Americans. Folks, slavery was not the only prejudice in America, and unfairness is not a color exclusive occurrence.

The battle over the Confederate memorials is a battle over America’s soul, and the politicians who are caving in to this onslaught or more probably are part of it, are enemies of this nation. Polls are clear, as they were clear on gay marriage, abortion, and all the rest of the imposed agenda on Americans… we are losing our nation because we have put materialism above patriotism at the ballot box.